No comments about Visual Basic Database Programming (With CD-ROM).

No comments about Visual Basic 2005 (Manual Avanzado / Advanced Manual).

5 comments about Developing Applications with Visual Basic and UML (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series).

1. I lead a small team of software developers and have been trying to figure out how to use UML to bring some method into the madness that is our design, development and implementation process. Before picking up Paul Reed's book I hade looked at UML Distilled(Fowler & Scott) and Fundamentals of OO design in UML(Page-Jones) both these books were heavily recommended as introductions and I found them helpful. After reading them I had the strong feeling that UML was just what I was looking for but could not quite see exactly how I would use it in my work. I could see that UML presented an array of powerful and useful diagrams but could not really figure out quite how they related to each other. Reed's book really breathed life into UML for me. Reading it I began to understand how the UML diagrams fitted together in the context of a development process. It gave me the insights to begin to see how we can use UML in our work.

   I have used Visual Basic quite a bit so the VB focus in the book was helpful. However, the book stands well as an introductory text on UML for those with no knowledge or interest in VB. The book gives a good (and critical) description of the Microsoft Technology landscape - DNA, COM/DCOM, MTS, ASP. Reed clearly explains what these things are and how to use them within context of UML/OOD.




2. It is just that good! Coming from a primarily Unix world, I was looking for a book to help my transition to VB -- but not just a reference on coding -- one that had real world applications from start to finish employing today's technologies which are robust and resilient enough to stand the test of time. I found it in the book: Developing Applications with Visual Basic and UML. Paul Reed covers extensive ground in this book from gathering requirements to class design to code generation, painstakingly detailing each phase while employing UML throughout. His discussions on Microsoft's tiering architecture and DDL generation from modeling tools were most enlightening real world techniques. Personally, I feel that this book is for anyone looking for insight into proficient system architecture whether or not you are using VB.



3. Reviewer: johare4 from Santa Fe, NM USA This book falls in between Terry Quatrani's book "Visual Modeling with Rational Rose and UML" and Murray Cantor's book "Object-Oriented Project Management". Terry's book focuses on the mechanics of using various UML diagrams. The examples are based on a simple Course Enrollment system that serves to provide an example of the diagrams, but not much more insight than a a bus tour. Murray's book hits the management issues and provides a more realistic example of an aircraft cockpit simulator. He focuses on the management issues and ably describes how UML can help with the customer relations,team communication, and keeping the project on track and on budget. Paul Reed tries to do all these things and includes a lot of code to boot.

   There is a problem with Paul's approach. Because of the amount of detail, I found it easy to get lost. What issues are balanced in ending up with Paul's choices? Paul tries to tell me, but the issues are so closely tied to the Remulak Productions example of a musical instrument company that extraction of the idea from this particular example can be a headache that takes you back and forth through a lot of code and a lot of chapters. In the end, you will know far more than you ever wanted about Remulak Productions.

   I find the issues and the art much more lucidly presented in Ivar Jacobson's "Object-oriented Software Engineering".

   Bottom Line: If you want to know semantics: Quatrani, if you want to know management: Cantor, if you want a lot of detail, particularly how code is generated: Reed, if you want perspective: Jacobson.




4. This book did fill the purpose I bought it for - to help get me started down the UML path. It provided a good starting point to figure out how each UML diagram maps to VB concepts. But, the author has a very bizarre methodology that he uses to build applications, which he uses this book to evangelize. I found myself disagreeing with much of what he wrote. I skimmed the last half-dozen chapters due to the very high level of unfounded personal theory, and poorly laid out code examples.

   The other major problem with the book is that the middle part reads like a user's guide for Rational Rose, a tool most programmers cannot afford. Visio would have been far more relevant, although if it could have been made tool-agnostic with regards to modelling applications, that would have been even better.

   Overall, I found the book to be worth the money it cost, since the first part of the book really helped me understand how UML works, the time I wasted with the last part really wasn't worth it. Due yourself a favor, if you are a VB programmer who wants to learn UML - buy the book, and rip out everything from around the middle of the book onward.




5. Visual Basic is the wild west of modern software development tools, supporting RAD (rapid application development) and seemingly promoting a ready, fire, aim approach to developing applications. UML, the Uniform Modeling Language, and a software process aren't always easy to use with VB, and most UML books take a high-level view that make it hard to apply to VB development.

   Developing Applications with Visual Basic and UML breaks ground in an area where I've seen no other book yet do a good job, applying UML to VB. UML is a complex design notation that works best with object oriented design and programming tools, but VB 6 is at best object-based. Reading most generic UML books requires, at the very least, an advanced degree in computer science, keeping it to the intellectual elite of the software world. The author has bridged this gap effectively, relating the various diagrams and tools in UML to VB applications, demonstrating how you can apply them to real applications. And relating terms and concepts in VB to those in UML is a big help as well.

   This is a complex, in-depth book, and it would be easy to get lost in the conceptual discussions and sample project. But between the clearly marked process diagram used consistently throughout, goals and checkpoints that start and finish each chapter, and constant relating of new concepts to those covered before, the author helps the reader stay clearly focused on the big picture and which part is being discussed.

   Rational Rose is used as the sample design tool throughout the book. This might annoy readers using other tools, but the Rose-specific discussions were light enough that you should be able learn the technique well enough to apply it with other tools. The author sometimes gets bogged down in a few too many step by step listings to accomplish a given task in VB. Anyone picking up this book had better have a pretty good feel for VB already, or will become quickly lost.

   The one thing that mildly annoyed me is that the author introduces yet another design process methodology, his Synergy system. Synergy seems reasonable enough-I haven't yet given it a work out-but I'm not sure that the world needs another methodology.

   I'm not sure that you could sit down, read this book, and emerge an effective design engineer for enterprise applications using VB. But if you have a good feel for what it takes to build robust applications, have some familiarity with software engineering concepts, and have struggled applying them to VB projects, the book provides an excellent bridge between VB and UML. Certainly the best I've seen so far, and applying the techniques are sure to improve your development projects.

1 comments about VBScript & ActiveX Wizardry: Master the Art of Creating Interactive Web Pages with Visual Basic Script and ActiveX.

1. This book is for beginner, even new-comer to the programming field. Although I have five years experience in VB programming, I still have fun in reading this book.

   For example, it teaches you:

   1. the defference in playing a .wav file in VBScript and HTML a. in VBScript-- document.write " src=sound1.wav"; b. in HTML-- a href="sound1.wav" Click this to hear something interesting. /a (this source code may not be displayed properly in this web browser, so a omit < and > here.)

   2. the defference in the click event sub for a push buton for an AxtiveX command button and for an HTML form button. a. for ActiveX command button, name the sub Click; b. for HTML form button, name the sub OnClick;

   --Funny? I skimed this book very fast and finished it just in one day, because it's very eary to read.

5 comments about Visual Basic® 6 Bible.

1. I purchased this book over a year ago and still refer to it today.

   The book not only introduces you to programming in visual basic but explains it in a way that you can understand.

   The book steps through using the features of Visual Basic 6 and allows you to start programming almost from the time you pickup the book.

   This book doesn't go into many advanced topics so it is best suited for people that are looking to break into programming with visual basic.

   I would purchase it again or purchase it for someone in my family




2. I would not recommend this book for any reason. As I followed the code in creating these projects I encountered numerous bugs. No updates are made available for the code in this book. The bugs occur because of this books dependancies on Visual Basic 5 components. This is rather poor for a book that touts itself as being the Bible for Visual Basic 6. Authors and editors should take the time to at least be sure to use the same components included in the version of VB that they are supposedly supporting.

   I would reccomend the John Smiley series of books instead. At least his code works and makes for a much more enjoyable read as well.




3. This book has the right idea about what topics to cover but doesn't cover them in depth enough. Also the editing is HORRIBLE. For instance they talk about how great ADO is but yet seem to use DAO for everything....Seems lazy to me. Also If you get stuck on any code....its probably wrong in the book. The CD at least has the right code.



4. The most I got out of this book was being able to follow the tutorials that implement the various gadgets and gizmos that VB6 has to offer. While these examples and the concepts they illustrate are good (it's what earned my 1 star), it is absolutely horrible when you need it to implement your own programs. If you're looking for a book that you can use as a reference for your own projects, this is NOT it! Here's an example of what I mean.

   If you want to know how the combo box control works, for example, you look in the index and find 3 pages on it. The first page (p.79) shows a little blurb that explains what it is. Big whoop!!! Gee that really helps me! The second page listed in the index (p. 86) shows a little paragraph sub-titled "Adding the Combo Box". This tells you basically how to add it as part of the tutorial. That's about it! If I want to know how to use the combo box I have to dig through the book to find the code where it is implemented in the tutorial to see how it is used in that particular example and then hope that it will help me. It's the same for all other controls.

   In a nutshell, while the book is decent when it comes to explaining VB6 in it's examples, it falls waaay short when you need to quickly look up info on how to use a particular control independent of any particular program. I have been extremely frustrated every time I pick up the book to go back and refresh my memory on how to use the controls.

   My advice, don't do it! Get another book!




5. If you want screenshots and useless code and tutorials telling you to "click the ComboBox tool, then click to place your ComboBox," you might like this book. For my part, I prefer SUBSTANCE not screenshots and wizard-like walkthroughs.

   Put it this way: if you think that a book telling people to click on the Start menu is a good way to teach Windows, you'd like this book. If you want to know more details, forget it. Look elsewhere and save the trees. The online help that comes with Visual Basic is *way* more useful, both as a reference and as an introduction -- even if you are completely new to programming. For those reviewers that rated the book highly (notice they are all new to programming) I would suggest that, had you used the Help menu, you would have learned faster. I doubt any experienced programmer would disagree with this opinion.

No comments about Wiley Pathways Introduction to Programming using Visual Basics Project Manual (Wiley Pathways).

5 comments about Visual Studio .NET: The .NET Framework Black Book.

1. If you want to know how to use the .NET framework this is a great book for you - particularly if you are using VB.NET since the examples are all in VB.NET instead of C. The layout is great and make sure to look at the in-depth sections - that's where all the meat is. I had used 3 other books but threw them away after I got this one.



2. The comments about the VB.net bias and the fairly sparse IDE examples are correct (though you do get a modest share of C#, and a smidgen of managed C++). Fortunately, I approached this book as a newcomer to Windows programming who's just bought VB.Net Standard, installed the dotNet SDK, and wants to know what can be done with it. As such, this is a great resource. And as a proponent of actually knowing how to code as opposed to knowing how to use a GUI, the "notepad development" tendency was right up my alley. ... I found this book for a steep discount, but after reading it I would have paid full price--bearing in mind my situation/desires.



3. Having read (most of) Beginning VB.NET Second Edition from Wrox, I find myself having a good grounding in VB.NET (just so you know, I have been learning VB.NET for 3 weeks (with no prior vb experience whatsoever)). My first recommendation is go and buy that book, its worth every penny. Once you have read that book and trust me, you will have learnt more than you thought possible, then go and buy this one.

   What I like about this book is that is really in a way expands on everything I learnt in the first one. Now that I have some experience and know what I am looking for, I find myself thinking, 'how can I add this feature to my app, or how can I achieve this task'.

   This book has vast snippets of how to use the additional controls and features not discussed in the Wrox book. I wouldn't recommend starting with this book as the Wrox book is much better to start with.

   I find the writing style in this book quite good, but after only 3 weeks of programming I don't really need my hand to be held anymore, I just need a brief explanation of how do something - this book delivers.

   I particularly like the way the book is divided into Framework sections. I have found many snippets from other books that deliver a section of code, tell you how it works, but neglect to mention that you need to import a particular namespace...so the code just doesn't work...

   Enough said. If you have the Wrox one, then buy this one next.




4. I have little to no prior experience to vb.net so I didn't want to get a book that didn't go in to any details or did not explain why things work the way they do because the author may assume that you know what's going on. This is by far the best .Net book I've read so far and I'm only on Chapter 4. If you want to learn VB.net, order this book!



5. This is a 'must have' for any VB.Net or C# programmer. Extensive .net background and excellent examples.

No comments about Numerical Methods with VBA Programming.

5 comments about Advanced Programming in Visual Basic 6.0 w/Cd.

1. if you don't have much experience in any programming languages and want to learn VB, this book is good for you. easy to read and understand. book contents many examples



2. This book was the text book in college for my class. It is an above average book. If you go through the exercises, you will know the subjects well. My suggestion would be, if it is part of your curriculum, then you buy it. If you are really into learning advanced VB or VB.NET, I suggest Deitel series.



3. I have been learning VB6 on and off for about 1 year now. I am teaching myself via books, I bought the "Programming in visual basic 6.0" by the same aurthors to start with. That book I found to be excellent, and started me on projects. I decided to buy "advanced Programming in visual basic 6.0". This book is also good and easy to follow, however, alot of the content is almost identicle to the first book, I would say 60% of this book is covered in the previous edition. Three stars for teaching what I already have been tought by the first book.



4. I have about 12 Visual Basic 6 books. This by far goes into detail into things I normally do in VB than any other of the books I have.
   
   This book covers good ground on things such as using the explaining VB's controls and covers ADO better in a quicker time than most books. I still use this book a lot when I am working on legacy stuff.
   
   If you are creating standalone applications in VB6 with database activities, this book is a must-have and invaluable.
   
   Everybody seems to have different opinions on programming books, see any book and look at the plethora of different reviewer responses. This book has helped me personally too many times to count. Julia, you Rock!!



5. This is actually a really good book. I used this text to learn Advanced VB 6.0 after I learned from the preceeding text, Beginning Programming in Vsual Basic 6.0, and I still use it when writing typical VB app projects. The book is excellent at showing how various controls are used and manipulated in code as well as visually using the IDE. Makes good examples of a coding techniques, SDI/MDI, control properties, Let-Set-Get, classes, modules, VB OOP, forms, ADO, and reports generation. Also explains ActiveX Components, DHTML, and publishing for distribution. What I liked most about the authors approach is the that the code is very easy to follow and makes perfect sense. The book also explains using code to control the program instead of relying completely on the RAD aspect of VB, which is easy to do since you can actually write a complete application without writing a single line of code. Unfortunately, some points of interest are difficult to find weeks after completing a chapter, as they are not always documented in the TOC. I also didn't like that each subject or technique being demonstrated adds more functionality to a project started in a previous chapter. This was a relatively minor thing compared to the usefulness of the book. Overall, a very good learning text when used in a classroom the way the author intended. All of the sample code works and it's code you can actually use---that alone is worth at least 4 stars.

No comments about Visual Basic: For MS-DOS by Example (Programming Series).